The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

The Zimbra blog has a demonstration of how CalDAV works to sync between Zimbra’s calendar server and iCal on the Mac.

http://www.zimbra.com/blog/archives/2008/03/caldav_leopard_goodne

Eddie asked “is there a way to sync the birthdays in my iPhone contacts with the calendar?”

You have to go to iCal prefs and select show birthday calendars and then resync the iPhone. Then in iTunes, you’ll have the Birthdays calendar available to check off. Resync and you’re in business. Screen shots included below.

1. Check off show birthdays calendar under ical>preferences.

2. Sync Your iPhone.

3. You will now have a Birthdays calendar to choose in iTunes under info.

4. Now just sync the phone again and you are all set.

iPhone arrives on June 29. iPhone features an amazing mobile phone, is the best iPod ever created, and puts the Internet in your pocket with desktop–class email, web browsing, searching, and maps. And iPhone makes it all easy to use with its revolutionary multi-touch user interface. iPhone syncs with your PC or Mac just like an iPod, so organizing your content now will help you start calling, texting, emailing, surfing, listening, and watching even faster when you get your iPhone. Here are a few suggestions to help you get ready:

A good thing to do prior to first synchronizing your calendars and address books with .Mac or Zimbra here’s how to back up Apple’s iCal & Address Book data in Mac OS X 10.4.

Backing up iCal:
First, launch iCal and select File > Back up Database:

A window will appear in iCal requesting where to save the backup file to:

This will create a backup file of iCal:

After creating your backup file, store it safely on an external hard drive or burn the data to CD/DVD. To recover from your backup file, simply navigate to File > Revert to Database Backup and select the backup file.

OK, I admit it. I still carry around an old-fashioned address book. Well, I recently discovered that I could transfer my contacts from Address Book, plus info from iCal, to my iPod.

If you are using a Mac and iSync, it’s as easy.

To import all information using a Mac and iSync:

1. Connect iPod to your computer.
2. Open iSync and choose Devices > Add Device.
3. Select iPod and click Sync Now.

iSync transfers the data from iCal and Mac OS X Address Book to your iPod.